Google in London
February 19, 2016
I know that the Sun newspaper is not an academic journal. I admit to reading its football coverage once every week or so. Enjoyable stuff.
I noted a example of “real” journalism with the alluring title “Kicked in the Googlies.” I am not sure what a “googlie” is, but the notion of kicking reminded me of football, so I read the article.
I learned that the focus of the story was Alphabet Google. The article presented some interesting “real” journalistic facts; to wit:
- Google’s London office has a dance studio
- There are 5,000 Googlers in the Covent Garden office, which is definitely good news for the vendors next to their stalls selling oddments
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner are free. Well, bad news for the food emporia in the new Covent Garden which was Ludenwic and then became a fruit and veggie garden. The gardens gave way to folks who sported at theatres and ogled other folk.
- Onsite haircuts are available in the event that the locks need trimming.
I liked this phrase:
The company is spending £1billion on a new London HQ which has more in common with a holiday camp than an office.
Whoa, Nellie. The write up reveals that Alphabet Google is proposing a new structure near King’s Cross station. The idea is to include “a meditation room, a running track, a games area, and five massage parlors.”
The point of the article is that these offices (real and proposed) are not permanent. The idea that Google is not paying its fair share of taxes holds the disparate factoids together in a chewy caramel of modern fiscal responsibility.
Interesting write up. I envision the ghosts of medieval life enjoy a return to life as it once was. I say, did we ride our horses through your home? Pity that.
Stephen E Arnold, February 19, 2016
Computational Demand: Not So Fast
February 19, 2016
Analytics, Big Data, and smart software. The computer systems today can handle the load.
The death of Moore’s Law; that is, the drive to make chips ever more capable is dead. I just learned this. See “Moore’s Law Really Is Dead This Time.” If that is the case, too bad for some computations.
With the rise of mobile and the cloud, who worries about doing complex calculations?
As it turns out, some researchers do. Navigate to “New Finding May Explain Heat Loss in Fusion Reactors.”
Here’s the passage that underscores the need to innovate in computational systems:
it requires prodigious amounts of computer time to run simulations that encompass such widely disparate scales, explains Howard, who is the lead author on the paper detailing these simulations. Accomplishing each simulation required 15 million hours of computation, carried out by 17,000 processors over a period of 37 days at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center — making this team the biggest user of that facility for the year. Using an ordinary MacBook Pro to run the full set of six simulations that the team carried out…would have taken 3,000 years.
The next time you buy into the marketing baloney, keep in mind the analyses which require computational horsepower. Figuring out who bought what brand of candy on Valentine’s Day is different from performing other types of analyses.
Stephen E Arnold, February 19, 2016
Hobbit: Not Palantir Hobbits
February 19, 2016
I read “Hobbit—First Deliverables and Online Presence.” The news item reminded me that a European consortium “aims to develop a holistic benchmarking platform for big linked data and corresponding industry grade benchmarks.” The article pointed out an open benchmarking platform to evaluate the performance of state of the art systems on standardized hardware. To learn more about this European initiative navigate to this link. Will vendors participate so that meaningful performance data become available? That’s the hope.
Stephen E Arnold, February 19, 2016
Recommind Enables Easier Oversight into E-Discovery for Legal Industry
February 19, 2016
A recent article, entitled Recommind Adds Muscle to Cloud e-Discovery from CMS Wire, highlights an upgrade to Recommind’s Axcelerate e-discovery platform. This information intelligence and governance provider for the legal industry has upped their offering by adding a new efficiency scoring feature to enable “extensive visibility into the overall e-discovery review process.” Recommind make the updated based on polling their clients and finding 80 percent do not have oversight in regards to the technological competency of their outside counsel:
“Citing the same survey, he added that 72 percent of respondents pointed to insufficient visibility into the discovery practices of their outside counsel — legal professionals working with them but outside the firm — as a major concern. Axcelerate Cloud also eliminates the cost unpredictability that arises with traditional hosting charges with cloud-based e-discovery tools providers and the infrastructure maintenance required for on-premises solutions.”
When insights from big data is what a company is after, stronger cloud-based functionality is often the first step. Reminds us of enterprise search firm Autonomy which was eventually sold to HP. What will be next for Recommind?
Megan Feil, February 19, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Search Vendor RAVN Systems Embraces Buzzwords
February 19, 2016
The article titled RAVN Systems Releases RAVN ACE for Automated Data Extraction of ISDA Documents Using Artificial Intelligence on BobsGuide details the needs of banks and other members of the derivatives market. Risk mitigation leads to ongoing negotiations that result in major documentation issues to keep up with the changes. The article explains how RAVN has met these challenges,
“RAVN ACE can extract the structure of the agreement, the clauses and sub-clauses, which can be very useful for subsequent re-negotiation purposes. It then further extracts the key definitions from the contract, including collateral data from tabular formats within the credit support annexes. All this data is made available for input to contract or collateral management and margining systems or can simply be provided as an Excel or XML output for analysis.”
Not only does RAVN ACE do the work in a fraction of the amount of time it would take a person, the output is also far more accurate, always good news when handling legal documents. The service also includes an audit service that compares terms from the documents with the manual abstraction. By doing so, RAVN ACE is able to analyze the risks and even estimate the amount of negotiating necessary to complete the contract.
Chelsea Kerwin, February 19, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Unicorn Valuations and Paybacks
February 18, 2016
I read “The Terms behind Unicorn Valuations.” Valentine’s Day seemed to be an ideal time to think about billion dollar outfits and those who fund them. Note: I did not get a valentine this year.
The law firm generating the document is a specialist in unicorn analysis. The most recent report represents 2015 data. The major takeaway in my opinion is that 2015 was the Year of the Unicorn. With the Chinese New Year in mind, 2016 is the Year of the Monkey as I recall.
I noted that some investors in unicorns get “downside protection.” I interpreted this to suggest that some folks have a shot at getting some of the money back if their unicorn catches pneumonia or worse. I like the discovery that flexibility may have been used to achieve the $1 billion valuation.
For me the key finding was:
the beginning of the period covered by the survey was markedly stronger than the end of the period covered by the survey.
The economic uncertainty may have been a factor. The report does not dip into psycho socio economic reasons for the dip.
The write up concludes:
companies in need of additional funds might find it necessary to provide new investors liquidation or other rights superior to their unicorn (and other) investors to attract needed capital. This happened frequently when the dotcom bubble burst in the early 2000s. Although the use of structures that reduce or eliminate outstanding investor rights is uncommon during most of the venture cycle, they become more common during significant downturns in the venture economy.????
What about the financing of search and content processing vendors? Only one is a unicorn, Palantir. Worth watching.
Net net: No valentines for those who get bitten by a unicorn.
Stephen E Arnold, February 18, 2016
Smart Software: In the Race Are…
February 18, 2016
I read “How the Rest of Tech Is Playing Catch-Up to Facebook and Google in Artificial Intelligence.” I would summarize the article in one word: “Scrambling.” Alphabet Google and Facebook are leaders in smart software; others must catch up.
I thought about this idea when I read “Intelligent Assistant Landscape Shows Slow Growth but Huge Potential.” Of particular interest was a graphic composed of the logos of companies competing in the smart software revolution.
I noted the grouping for conversational technologies which seem to be nudging into functions which I follow from my redoubt in a hollow in rural Kentucky.
Here are the companies in this “talk to computers” cluster:
- Aivo
- Anboto
- Artificial Solutions
- Aspect Software
- Avaya Ava
- Bot Ego
- Botgenes
- CodeBaby
- Creative Virtual
- CX Company
- Denise Systems
- Do You Dream Up
- Existor
- Fetch
- Genee
- GetAbby
- Google Now
- Here
- IBM Watson
- Inbenta
- Inteliwise
- Intelliresponse
- LinguaSys
- Microsoft
- MindMeld
- Next IT
- NoHold
- Nuance Nina
- Speaktoit
- SRI International
- Synthetix
- Viclone
An interesting and eclectic list. The conversational cluster is very similar to the Virtual Agents and Customer Assistant cluster. My thought is that some specialists have been overlooked.
If you like these logo clusters, check this one out. Perhaps the next Facebook is on the list?
My reaction is that more precision in the groupings would have been helpful to me. Overall most of these outfits are in search and content processing businesses. A few have embraced smart software as the with-it way to generate leads and sales.
Stephen E Arnold, February 18, 2016
IBM and Its Watson Branding
February 18, 2016
I read “IBM Hits 52-Week Low as Watson Branding Flails.” The write up comes from a person allegedly in touch with the pulsing world of Wall Street. The article is interesting and contains a number of points which I found in line with my own ideas about IBM; for example:
- Watson is not a consumer product. IBM is relying on consumer marketing tactics, including TV and cultural icons like Bob Dylan.
- IBM’s financial performance has been disappointing to shareholders.
- IBM bought the Weather Company “platform” and put its CEO in charge of Watson.
The highlight of the article was this statement:
Bob Dylan walks off stage in his Watson commercial, he seems frustrated. Watson can’t sing. That is not all it can’t do.
Keeper for my quote folder.
Stephen E Arnold, February 18, 2016
I Left My NoSQL Heart at the MarkLogic Conference
February 18, 2016
MarkLogic is a headlining company in the field of NoSQL enterprise databases, allowing companies to process, search, scale through massive data stores as well as build Web applications to handle the onslaught. As a respected enterprise leader, MarkLogic occasionally holds a conference to teach IT professionals as well as potential customers about its software benefits. This year MarkLogic will host the MarkLogic World 2016 US in San Francisco, California from May 9-12 at the Park Central Hotel.
The conference is described as:
“We kick the week off on Monday with three different hands-on workshops to choose from and end our week Thursday afternoon with our traditional closing keynote with our Founder and Chief Architect, Christopher Lindblad. New this year, we are including a special Partner Track, exclusive to MarkLogic partners and those interested in becoming one. If you are developing with MarkLogic, transitioning from RDBMS to MarkLogic, building apps on MarkLogic, or if you are just starting out on MarkLogic, this is the event for you. Sessions span from MarkLogic basics to technical deep dives covering data modeling, semantics, much & more.”
A Partner Track? That is a new feature at the MarkLogic convention, but what is its purpose? Will it be a daylong event where MarkLogic partners advertise their services or wares otherwise known as a commercial seminar without a free lunch? Will it be an informative explanation about how MarkLogic partners are shaping the NoSQL enterprise industry and combining their talents to advance the field? Maybe it is just a mix and mingle for networking?
The only way to know is to sign up for the conference and if you use the promo code “MLEMJAN” you can get in for free. It is also an excuse to visit San Francisco and ride the cable cars.
Whitney Grace, February 18, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Google 20% Time Policy Projects Take Users Around the World
February 18, 2016
The article on StumbleUpon titled 12 Lesser-Known Google Projects That Are Absolutely Amazing describes how certain Google employees took advantage of their creative time, or “20% time polcy” that dictates one day a week should be used experimentally. Hence some of these whimsical concepts like Google Sky, which functions similarly to Google Earth but in the far-out setting of space. Another idea is the game Ingress,
“Ingress transforms the real world into the landscape for a global game of mystery, intrigue, and competition. Our future is at stake. You must choose a side. A mysterious energy has been unearthed by a team of scientists in Europe. The origin and purpose of this force is unknown, but some researchers believe it is influencing the way we think. We must control it or it will control us.”
Other projects offer outlets to explore global culture and history, such as the World Wonders Project, which enables users to view high-res photos and 3D views of distant places like the Pyramids of Giza and Angor Wat. The Google Art Project contains quality images of important artworks from 400 art museums all over the world and allows users to build their own collections for take audio tours to learn more about famous pieces. Overall, the projects encourage increased engagement with technology, culture, and creativity.
Chelsea Kerwin, February 18, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
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